She loved the Flag, and was true to its beautiful meaning. She loved to present Colours to the newly-opened Corps, or to parties of Officers going abroad; and when, shortly before she passed away, she changed her room, she begged that the dear Army Flag might be brought in and hung above her bed.
‘There,’ said The General, ‘the Colours are over you now, my darling.’
And she clasped them fondly with her left hand, and traced the motto–‘Blood and Fire.’
‘Yes,’ she said, ’Blood and Fire; that is just what my life has been–a constant and severe fight.’
‘It ought to be “Blood and Fire and Victory,"’ said The General.
‘I’ll fight on till I get it,’ she answered. ’I won’t give in. Next time I see them I shall be above the pain and sorrow for ever.’
But, though at the last she longed to be at rest, it was not easy for her great mother’s heart to unloose itself from those she loved, and from the thousands in all lands who looked to her as to a mother.
If you have learnt to love very deeply you will also have to suffer, and her very love made the parting so difficult.
‘Oh,’ she exclaimed, when speaking of leaving The General and her children, ’mine is such a heart! it seems as if it had got roots all round the world clutching on to one and another, and that it will not let them go! And yet You can take care of them, Lord, better than I could. I do, I do believe! O Eternal Father, Shepherd of the sheep, do Thou look after my little flock!’
‘Amen,’ we who read these lines may say; adding to her prayer, ’And give us that same heart and love which made her life of such mighty power.’